Contribution
Auditory-, Audiovisual and Visual-only Time-To-Collision Estimation of Accelerating ICE- and E-Vehicles
* Presenting author
Abstract:
To make safe road crossing decisions, pedestrians need to estimate the arrival time (time-to-collision, TTC) of approaching vehicles. Previous research has shown that when the TTC of accelerating vehicles is estimated based on visual information, participants fail to take into account the acceleration. This results in a potentially dangerous overestimation of the vehicle's TTC. The sound of an accelerating conventional vehicle (ICEV) has been shown to improve TTC estimation for accelerating vehicles, but this improvement was found to be reduced for electric vehicles (EV). Here, we investigated this further, with methodological refinements, by comparing TTC estimation of accelerating ICEVs and EVs (with and without AVAS) with closely matched velocity profiles. Auditory-, audiovisual, and visual-only modality conditions were included, in addition to conditions where sound levels were matched between vehicle types. As expected, in the visual-only conditions, participants did not account for acceleration. Similarly, in the AV conditions where the sound was that of an EV without AVAS, participants estimates were in line with first-order estimates. For the other vehicle types, however, there was some effect of acceleration. In the auditory-only conditions, TTC estimates also differed between vehicle types, but these differences appeared to be mainly driven by vehicle sound level.